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GENESEO, Ill. - Technicians at Springfield Armory hope to start shipping repaired XD-S pistols back to their owners the week of Oct. 21. Springfield issued a voluntary safety recall for the .45 caliber and 9 mm subcompact pistols at the end of August, after it was found that some XD-S pistols would fire when the slide was released or would fire more than one time when the trigger was pulled.Dennis Reese, co-CEO of Springfield Armory, told nationally syndicated talk radio host Tom Gresham last week on Gresham's "Gun Talk" radio show that a problem with the Croatian-manufactured XD-S's grip safety appeared to be the cause of the misfires.

After extensive testing, Reese said Springfield technicians decided to replace the grip safety with a redesigned part. He said the grip safety spring, sear and sear spring will also be replaced.Reese said a roll pin would be installed in the new grip safety to provide a visual clue that the part has been replaced. He said any XD-S without a roll pin in the grip safety should be returned to the factory for repair."We are very, very confident that our upgrade is really the right thing," Reese said.Reese said replacement parts for the pistols were to arrive this week. He said the first recalled pistols began arriving at Springfield Armory on Sept. 3, and will be repaired and shipped back to their owners in the order they were received.

Reese expects the first shipments of repaired pistols to begin the week of Oct. 21. "We are just hell-bent on getting those guns back in our customers' hands as quickly as possible," he said.Chad Dyer, of Springfield Armory's marketing department, said the recall applies to all .45 caliber and 9 mm XD-S pistols manufactured up to the time of the recall. Company officials aren't talking about how many pistols will have to be repaired, but a review of the serial number ranges affected suggests as many as 225,000 guns may be involved.The .45 caliber XD-S was one of the smallest and slimmest .45 semi-automatics available when first released in early 2012, and was immediately popular with shooters and law enforcement officers. More than a dozen deputies with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, as well as Sheriff Johnny Rutherford, bought the small pistols as backups to their Springfield XD service pistols.The gun was later also released in 9 mm.For more information on the recall, visit Springfield Armory's website, www.springfield-armory.com.Reese said XD-S pistols would be shipped back to their owners with a free magazine.Reach Rusty Marks at